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Meeting Sister Rosie, I quickly realized she is a force. Her infectious smile, empathetic eyes, and fierce determination makes her presence known to everyone when she walks into a room – by visitors, by her peers, and by the poor in rural Meghalaya she has been working with for the past two years. However welcoming her physical presence is, it is her unwavering dedication to the social mission of the North East Diocesan Social Service Society (NEDSSS) that commands the utmost respect from the community.

One year ago, Kumar began renting out 40 Selco solar-powered batteries to the people living in his slum community in the heart of Bangalore. Prior to this, 400 families were left to rely on cheap, easily breakable lights, dangerous and flammable kerosene lamps, or simple darkness. Without affordable energy, the inhabitants of Kumar’s slum lose hours of otherwise productive time that would allow them to build a pathway out of the slum, and into a secure life. Within months, demand for Selco’s rechargeable batteries sky-rocketed and Kumar increased his inventory to 86. Now, he is requesting yet another 50.

In the early 2000s Frank Daller and Brian Harrington were a world away from each other. Despite this, they had seemingly simultaneous experiences that would change their lives forever. In their separate travels through India and Africa, they were confronted with stunted, sick, and dying children: all because they simply did not have enough food to eat. It was in these travels that both men – miles from each other – became committed to providing low-cost food solutions to fight malnutrition in the developing world. While they did not know it at the time, Malnutrition Matters (a 2007 Development Marketplace Grantee) was born.

We traveled down a bumpy, dirt road in the rural areas of West Bengal towards a village called Bolpur. Three hours after leaving Kolkata, the car pulled up to an unassuming concrete building. The health care worker who accompanied us for this ride jumped out enthusiastically and immediately spoke into her megaphone. “Not feeling well?” she called out to the village, “Need a quick check up? Come and visit us for the next hour and a half.” Here, in a small village, at an unassuming building, we had found ourselves at an iKure spot camp.

iKure - a Kolkata-based social enterprise dedicated to bringing affordable health care to India’s poorest populations - has created these spot camps as an integral part of their inventive model for a network of health clinics in India’s rural areas. In addition to providing access to doctors and medicine prescriptions, they provide the necessary outreach to tell villagers about where and when the clinics are and how they can access medical consultations and medicine.

During the last three years, the Development Marketplace program (call it DM 2.0) has been testing a new approach in nine of India’s low income states representing a population of more than 380 million of the world’s poorest.

On a warm Friday afternoon in the slums of Madhukam, in the heart of Ranchi, India, a middle-aged man arrived at a public water station with two 20-liter containers to fill. The water station - directly adjacent to an open sewage drain - was really just a concerete wall with four pink spigots protruding from its barren surface. On top perched two large, seemingly empty holding tanks of water. The man placed one of his containers under the first spigot and turned the handle. A small flow of water came out. Within a minute, the flow turned into a trickle, and the trickle quickly became nothing. The man moved to the next spigot, and then the next, only to have all four repeat the same pattern. In the end, the man left carrying only six ounces of water in his two 20-liter containers.

For 15 years the World Bank Group’s Development Marketplace (DM) has identified innovative social entrepreneurs who tackle service delivery bottlenecks that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest populations. Originally a competitive grants program, the DM has grown over the years into a multi-faceted program that identifies these entrepreneurs, analyzes their specific needs, and maps out the problems they face and the solutions they offer. Through this approach, the DM is able to assist these organizations in breaking down service delivery barriers so that other social entrepreneurs and the public sector can follow their lead: eventually helping to create a world free of extreme poverty and raising incomes so that we all share in the world’s prosperity.

In Egypt, the social enterprise movement has gained momentum in the years since the January 25, 2011 revolution. This moment in history gave Egyptian youth a sense of belonging and control over thier future they had not previously felt; manifesting itself in a proliferation of young social entrepreneurs who are determined to translate their long held dreams into tangible outcomes that help their communities.

Young Egyptian social entrepreneurs join youth across the developing world in pioneering new ways to provide basic services to their local communities. The power of these emerging non-state providers (NSPs) is especially successful in post conflict fragile states like Egypt. While the state rebuilds itself and its capacity to deliver services, NSPs are able to satisfy the urgent need for basic services, stimulate economic activity, create jobs, and reduce poverty through their sustainable market-based, socio-economic solutions.

In a lecture hosted by the World Bank in Washington, DC on February 19, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright highlighted that the rise of non-state actors is one of the few positive trends in provision of public goods and services. She argued that non-state actors, like those supported by the Development Marketplace’s grants and capacity building programs, have unique on-the-ground knowledge and resources.

Unfortunately, Albright noted, the policy infrastructure does not support active dialogue and engagement of the non-state actors in the policy-making and service delivery. “These changes are not supported by collaborative structures,” she continued, “Modern states like the U.S. and India are not equipped to collaborate with these non-state providers.” In the face of growing distrust of governments, she argued, these non-state providers cannot be ignored as they offer hope to those in dire need.

As a young medical student in the 70s, I dreamt of becoming a surgeon. Everything about surgery fascinated me: the long hours, the sleepless nights, the unmistakable adrenalin rush and sense of satisfaction of saving a human life.

Three decades later, I had reached the pinnacle of my success. I had a reputation as an accomplished and compassionate surgeon and was wooed by fancy private hospitals with even fancier pay packages and perks. I selected the best the city could offer: a plush corporate hospital with the best equipment and where operating was a luxury itself.